Angels and Demons

From the beginning to the end, the angels and demons appear in the text as a key note. Langdon and Vittoria go in the secret archive of the Vatican to search in Galileo’s Diagramma the clue to the first marker of the Path of Illumination. the Path of Illumination consists of the sign (Il segno), the markers and the altars of science. These show the way to the meeting point of the Illuminati – the Chruch of Illumination. At page 5 they find that poem which is their guide to the first marker.

From Santi’s earthly tomb with demon’s hole (–> is in Chigi-Chapel)

‘cross Rome the mystic elements ( –> earth, air, fire, water) unfold

The path of light ( –> the Path of Illumination) is laid, the sacred test

Let angels guide you on your lofty quest

Angels should guide them – they do. At every altar of science it is an angel who is the next marker. Even at the Fountain of the Four Rivers it is a dove – the alternate symbol of an angel. The angel guides them to the Illuminati, so it could be that the angel is kind of symbol for the Illuminati – pureness.

When you link the title to the course of the story you can say that in the end the angels guide to the demon. If Langdon and Vittoria haven’t followed the Path of Illumination, they wouldn’t have found out that the camerlengo is the one who pulls the strings. For Langdon and Vittoria the end of the Path of Illumination is not the Church of Illumination but the Sistine Chapel where all becomes clear what happened and why.

Demon is for the camerlengo science. Science can creat miracle but also demon things like weapons. Vetresca thinks that religion isn’t demon in any way. But I think the following passage can explain the camerlengo’s opinion better than I ever could.

“But the demons of the past were demons of fire and abomination … they were enemies we could fight – enemies who inspired fear. Yet Satan is shrewd. As time passed, he cast off his diabolical countenance for a new face … the face of pure reason. Transparent and insidious, but soulless all the same.” … ” Tell me, Mr. Kohler! How can the church condemn that which makes logical sense to our minds! How can we decry that which is now the very foundation of our society! Each time the church raises its voice in warning, you shout back, calling us ignorant. Paranoid. Controlling! And so your evil grows. Shrouded in a veil of self-righteous intellectualism. It spreads like a cancer. Sanctified by the miracles of its own technology. Defying itself! Until we no longer suspect you are anything but pure goodness. Science has come to save us from our sickness, hunger and pain! Behold science – the new God of endless miracles, omnipotent and benevolent! Ignore the weapons and the chaos. Forget the fractured loneliness and endless peril. Science is here ! But I have seen Satan’s face lurking…I have seen the peril …”

But the fact is that Vetra proofed with the demon the existence of god, religion and demon science get closer together. I think that with the stigma of the Illuminati Diamond the conflict ends. The Illuminati and the Church bridged the gap and are unified in demon so the camerlengo embodies demon with all his sins and bitterness.